Mayan Landforms

Geographical Setting: What continent? What Landforms? What important Places? There landforms were highlands (Guatemala) and lowlands (Belize, Mexico).Their climate was hot and dry. They had rainforests with a hot climate that was good for farming. It rained a lot so they had water for everything.

Political (Leadership, citizenship, decision-making institutions)

They had city-states with their own individual kings. These cities traded and fought with each other. The cities were very warlike and used conquest for resources.

Leaders: (Include Name, Time period and achievements)

Kings performed religious duties. They were well educated in glyph writing, religion, and more. The king's duties were to speak with the gods. They

THey had different farming techniques for different areas. They used slash and burn agriculture for rainforests, they used terraces in highlands, and irrigation for dry lands. They used warfare to get tribute and to control trade routes.

Social Order (customs, education, family life, class and caste, leisure activities, decision-making, gender roles)
There were four main classes for the Mayan. There was the ruling class of nobles or kings who controlled land. Next there were scholars and merchants. The broadest class were the peasants who were farmers and fishers. At the bottom were slaves who were usually war captives. The person who controlled everyone, even the kings was the emperor. The emperor had complete control over everything and everyone.

Belief Systems (Religions, myths, rituals)
The Maya were polytheistic. They worshipped more the 160 gods. One of the most important gods in their religion was ItzamNa. For them the underworld the afterlife was a bad place to be. There gods represented the forces of nature and they thought that if they did not praise them nature would stop. For example they worshiped corn because they thought they were made by corn. They had corn ceremonies. They had many sacrifices to the